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phd_kargesk.pdf
Doctoral thesis

Modelling item difficulty in several languages : on the equivalence of reading comprehension items in a translated foreign language assessment

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  • Fribourg (Switzerland), [2026]

1 ressource en ligne (302 pages) ; 1 fichier pdf

PhD: Université de Fribourg (Suisse), 20.02.2026

language assessment
multilingualism
Deutsch als Fremdsprache
item difficulty
reading comprehension
Langues - Étude et enseignement
Lecture - Tests
Lecture - Cognition
English This thesis investigates the extent to which the difficulty of reading comprehension items in a foreign language assessment can be predicted by characteristics of the assessment, how these interact with test taker attributes, and whether such predictions can be made across languages. The dataset stems from a large-scale assessment of foreign language comprehension (A1/A2) administered to sixth graders (N≈20,000) in Switzerland. With minor exceptions, the tests were identical apart from the target language (German, French, English). The theoretical part reviews models of reading comprehension, its components, and considers foreign language reading at low proficiency levels. It addresses the measurement of reading comprehension and the operationalisation of lexical characteristics across languages. Empirical research on multilingual assessment and item difficulty is also discussed. Overall, prior research rarely considers the inherently multilingual nature of foreign language reading. The empirical study operationalises linguistic and assessment-related variables (e.g. text length, lexical diversity, cognateness, item format) and estimates item difficulty using a many-facet Rasch model. It uses correlation, regression, random forest and exploratory Bayesian analyses to investigate the relationship between these variables and item difficulty. Results confirm systematic differences between language versions, with related language pairs yielding easier items. They also show that text length, lexical characteristics and cognateness are consistent predictors across languages, although effects are generally weak. Test taker characteristics predict overall ability more strongly. Overall, the findings highlight the complex, multivariate nature of item difficulty and underscore the importance of multilingual repertoires in foreign language reading, particularly at lower proficiency levels.
Faculty
Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
Department
Département de plurilinguisme et didactique des langues étrangères
Language
  • English
Classification
Language, linguistics
Notes
  • Bibliographie
License
CC BY-NC-SA
Open access status
diamond
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/335071
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